THE SALT OF TRANQUILITY

A miner in hibernation on the moon wakes to discover that the world he knows has changed forever.

Tyler West grew up in a small town in the Midwest, with few prospects for excitement. So he was thrilled to be chosen for the moon miner training program. As a miner, he could look forward to nearly two years in hibernation while his capsule collected the precious “moonsalts,” followed by a triumphant return to Earth and a fat bank account. But when he wakes up from hibernation, his computer display tells him that about 9,000 years have passed. He returns to Moon Station Armstrong, the lunar settlement, only to find it abandoned, a dead body floating in the control center. The only clue he uncovers is a recording made by someone named Lemuel Peterson, the last man to visit the base. Lemuel’s recording describes the events since Tyler’s hibernation began: After Islamic extremists launched biological and nuclear attacks all over the world, biochemist and environmental leader William Harmony came forth with a plan to save the world. Predicting billions of deaths from starvation, he offered a pill that allowed people to survive on far less food—but it required them to eat only human flesh for the rest of their lives. Gery Sidney Cottam, the primary author, died before finishing the book, and his wife, Beth, completed his work. Their gripping tale is full of intriguing twists, although the characters aren’t particularly well-developed, and the writing can be amateurish at times. The moral of the story isn’t delivered with much grace, either; a gentler hand might have made it more palatable. Despite these issues, though, the wild plot is compelling enough to hook readers until the last page.